212 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
who kept it for some days, and then let it go. This bird is usually rather 
rare here, but this autumn I have heard of three specimens having been 
killed. On the 5th inst. I put up three Short-eared Owls from some long 
grass in a wet, marshy meadow. About the end of the frost Mr. Wyatt 
had no less than ten Green Woodpeckers brought in, besides three Haw- 
finches and other birds—all picked up dead, and very thin and poor. 
Kingfishers have also suffered very much; a great many were found in the 
Cherwell when the ice broke up. Bramblings shot about the same time 
were in very good condition.—Oxtver V. Apxin (Bodicote, near Banbury). 
« HumMinc” or THE Snipe.—With reference to the article on this 
subject in the last number of ‘The Zoologist,’ I beg to suggest, in 
accordance with a note I find in ‘ The Zoologist’ for 1846 (p. 1501), that 
the Snipe, in the breeding season, may emit two sounds, one with the wings 
and tail, i.e. “ drumming” or “humming,” and one, called “ bleating” or 
“ whorring,” emitted when the bird is on the ground, but how emitted I will 
not venture to say. This suggestion, if it prove correct,—and I leave it to 
abler persons than myself to prove or disprove it,—would reconcile the 
conflicting views of Dr. Altum and Herr Zoppritz, and the evidence they 
produce in support of their respective theories. The writer of the note 
above referred to says that he has heard the Snipe emit the sound, above 
referred to as “ bleating” or “ whorring,” when he has been close enough to 
see that the sound was unaccompanied by any motion of the wings.—LionEL 
P. Fisner (Harrow). 
PECULIAR NESTING OF THE BLacksrrD. —About four or five years ago, 
when I was staying at Chalbury, Wimborne, Dorset, on the 22nd of June, 
as I and a friend were walking in a field which was put up for hay, my 
attention was suddenly called to a bird’s nest built on the ground, with 
three fine young birds in it, just fledged, which turned out to be a Black- 
bird’s. The nest was situated in an open space, a long way from any 
hedge, and was composed principally of small twigs, roots, and mud, lined 
with bents of grass. I think this is rather a rare case. I have found five 
instances mentioned in ‘ The Zoologist’ for 1873, some of which nests were 
built at the butts of trees in a wood, and some on hedge-banks, but I do not 
think there was oue in an open field.—H. C. Warry (Pembroke College, 
Cambridge). 
TEAL NESTING IN YoRKSHIRE.—On April 18th a nest and eggs of the 
Teal were found on Strensall Common, near York, a former breeding-place 
of this bird. The nest, on which the bird sat very close, was placed at the 
side of a clump of heather, some distance from water, the sides being 
slightly raised, with a small depression in the middle, and was constructed 
of dead grass with feathers intermixed, and not (as stated by the Rev. F. O. 
